All Blog Posts (7,321)

Islamic apologists have failed to provide any evidence that Muhammad or the earliest Muslims knew that the Earth was round. In contrast, there is lots of evidence to show them believing the Earth to be flat.
This evidence can be used as a foundation for other arguments concerning the flat Earth verses in the Qur'an, that they cause a justifiable suspicion that the author of the Qur'an was just as unaware as his nearby contemporaries about the shape of the Earth. It can also be used to make… Continue

Equuleus is the ancient designation for this small constellation. Even Claudius Ptolemy included it on his maps as the little horse. It's the second smallest constellation, the record for smallest being held by the southern cross. It's usually drawn as just a horses head,…

Eridanus is a long narrow constellation winding like a river from Orion's kneecap to points farther south. It is probably named after Eridu, an ancient city in in old Babylonia. Over the ages various cultures have given it various names and backstories, almost all of them…

The constellation Fornax is one those created by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the mid 1700's to commemorate the enlightenment's greatest hits. It represents the little furnaces that chemists use in the laboratory to cook things you shouldn't eat. I'm sure you can order one on…

The constellation of Gemini represents the twin sons of Jupiter, whose names are Castor and Pollux. Those two boys are also represented by the bright stars that are drawn as the heads of the figures when you connect the dots. Ptolemy added Gemini to his maps a couple of…

The constellation Grus represents a crane. Please note that we mean the large gangling-legged fish-eating bird, not the big load-lifting construction machine.We're basically talking three stars here so you can sketch just about anything with a…

Hercules is a major constellation and its story goes all the way back to when the ancient Greeks did a major reboot of Gilgamesh. Ptolemy included Hercules in his collection a couple thousand years ago which is how I heard about it. …

The constellation Horologium represents a clock and usually is portrayed as one of the old-timey types. Nicolas Louis de Lacaille created it and drew it as a grandfather hall clock with a pendulum and weights.Lacaille added 14…

The largest of all 88 constellations is called Hydra, the water snake. It's huge. It forms a line that wraps around the sky all the way from the stars of Cancer to those of Libra. If you go out and see the toothy business end just starting to rise in the east, you will wait…

There is a southern constellation called Hydrus which is not to be confused with the constellation Hydra. They are both water snakes but Hydrus it the lesser water snake in both size and mythical importance, and also it is male. Having two slithering sky serpents confirms…

I have been on a philosophical journey since I learned the world is knowable. I take every opportunity to learn new skills, practice old skills and improve my knowledge to better understand myself, my perception, the subjective world, the objective world, other perspectives and how all of that seems to work together for what seems like eternity; 13.8 billion years is approximately eternity compared to a single human life.

The source of the name for the constellation Indus is a bit confusing. Many say it celebrates the indigenous tribes of the Americas. But there is some indication it originally referred to tribes in Madagascar. There are also indications it's about the tribes of the East Indies, or…

There is a small constellation near Cassiopeia which looks like her but is a smaller "W" shape. It is Lacerta, which means lizard. It is considered part of the Perseus Group even although there is no lizard in that story. Johannes Hevelius named it in the late 1600's, I guess…

Seems obvious. I am a human. I live a human life which is fragile and temporary. I have human powers which make me normal among my other humans. Some humans have more powers than others, some less, but we are all human and all humans are equal.

God is incredible! God is everything? God is love...how does that work? God is the greatest ultimate so therefore, God is. God is apart from us;…

On 13 April 1919 dirty tactics were used by British Raj in Subcontinent. On 13 April General Harry Dyer ordered to shoot the unarmed people in Jallianwala Bagh. On 13 April General Harry Dyer proved his lewdness & again the same day this lewdness was repeated by Muslims in Pakistan. …

The constellation Leo shows up in the early spring, when frogs wake up, the crocuses start blooming, and pudgy old guys begin meandering around Lowes in cargo shorts and birkenstocks. These stars dominate the spring sky the way Orion dominates the winter. In the weeks before the…

It has been so long since I went to the think atheist group that I did not know it it was back. The new one was never very satisfactory, so I stopped visiting the site. Glad to see the old format back.

There is a constellation called Leo Minor that represents a lesser lion, just north of regular Leo. Johannes Hevelius added it in 1687. He sort of squeezed it in between Leo and the Big Dipper where there was a bit of unoccupied interstitial space. It's like how Idaho was…